Top Projects of 2016: Amazon Fulfillment Center – Shakopee

It wasn’t free two-day shipping but the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Shakopee was a relatively speedy delivery for such a massive, complex undertaking.

Racing against Amazon’s aggressive schedule and winter’s onset, Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. US Inc. and its subcontractors had the roof on the 2.3-million-square-foot warehouse just four months after the July 2015 groundbreaking.

The push continued as Ryan made way for Amazon’s materials-handling contractors in February 2016, six weeks ahead of schedule, said Todd Schell, Ryan’s vice president of industrial operations. The entire project was done by July.

“Not only is this the largest industrial building here in the Twin Cities, it was constructed in 12 months from groundbreaking to turnover,” Schell said.

One key to keeping up the pace was partnering with pairs of subcontractors on steel, concrete and electrical work, Schell said. With a contract allowing no work days lost to weather, multiple crews sometimes worked 16 hours a day and seven days a week.

The earthwork contractor worked with Ryan to develop ways to weatherproof the site at the end of each day so work could resume the next morning even if rain fell overnight, Schell said.

Ryan used an animated “4D” schedule simulation to plan and coordinate the work. The simulation pairs a three-dimensional virtual model of the project with a schedule of construction activities.

Compared with paper plans, “the amount of time needed to get that level of coordination together was probably reduced by 70 percent,” Schell said.

The company got an idea of what taking on such a project would mean after pursuing a sister project a few years ago in another state, Schell said.

“You have to be flexible and patient with a client like this,” said Schell, who added that plans change along the way. “Retailers are probably known for that … and Amazon is probably even more so — and on steroids to some extent — because of their forward thinking.”